How is the hour-of-day pattern worked out?

Every hourly price is divided by the same item’s average over the 24 hours around it, so a price drifting up or down over the month does not make one end of the day look dear, and the 24 hours are then centred so an average hour reads 1.000. The best buy window is the cheapest run of three hours and the best sell window the dearest. Hours are UTC, with the hour on the wall in the zone most of the market’s players keep beside them.

How much history does the pattern need?

Each hour of the day needs a few days of scans behind it before its figure means anything. The confidence line reads the thinnest hour: settled from ten days of scans, provisional from three, too early under that, and no pattern at all while fewer than half the hours have been scanned. Scanning PvP Alliance US through the night fills the gaps.

Best hours to buy and sell

Pick a market and an item. Every hour of the day shows its typical price, lowest buyout and listings, and the page names the cheapest hours to buy, the dearest to sell, and what the gap is worth after the 5 percent cut.

On PvP Alliance US, Lupine Axe is cheapest from 19:00 to 22:00 UTC (11:00 to 14:00 Pacific) and dearest from 07:00 to 10:00 UTC (23:00 to 02:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 112% after the 5 percent cut.

Current market: PvP Alliance US. This browser opens every tool here until you pick another. Address for this market: ahledger.com/timing?market=forever/pvp/alliance/us

1MarketEach house keeps its own hours.2WindowDays of scans the hours are averaged over.3ItemKept while you switch market or window; type another below.

Item

Best hours to buy

19:00 to 22:00 UTC

11:00 to 14:00 Pacific · index 0.764 · typical 27s 83c

Best hours to sell

07:00 to 10:00 UTC

23:00 to 02:00 Pacific · index 1.534 · typical 61s 42c

Spread after the 5% cut

+112%

buy at the cheap hours' lowest buyout, sell at the dear hours' typical price

Confidence

Too early

Too early to trust: the thinnest hour has 1 day of scans behind it over the last 28 days. Read the windows as a hint, not a rule.

Lupine Axeby hour · PvP Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Typical	Lowest	Listings	Index	Days
00:00	16:00	48s	47s 67c	12	1.017	3
01:00	17:00	26s 89c	23s	10	0.920	3
02:00	18:00	22s	22s	14	0.797	2
03:00	19:00	22s 25c	22s	13	0.822	2
04:00	20:00	48s	47s	11	1.041	3
05:00	21:00	41s 50c	27s 75c	18	1.007	4
06:00	22:00	48s 70c	29s 25c	14	1.237	4
07:00	23:00	59s 25c	43s 50c	16	1.533	4
08:00	00:00	70s 67c	36s	16	1.671	3
09:00	01:00	54s 33c	35s 67c	17	1.398	3
10:00	02:00	31s 33c	30s 67c	17	0.946	3
11:00	03:00	54s 33c	31s	20	1.407	3
12:00	04:00	44s 50c	40s	8	0.744	2
13:00	05:00	41s 33c	36s 33c	15	0.819	3
14:00	06:00	36s	30s 33c	22	0.967	3
15:00	07:00	26s 50c	25s 50c	20	0.919	2
16:00	08:00	31s	27s 67c	19	0.855	3
17:00	09:00	30s 33c	27s 67c	20	0.853	3
18:00	10:00	31s	31s	17	0.906	2
19:00	11:00	39s	39s	11	0.841	3
20:00	12:00	22s 50c	21s 50c	22	0.734	2
21:00	13:00	22s	22s	8	0.718	1
22:00	14:00	45s	42s	16	0.938	3
23:00	15:00	39s 25c	36s 75c	22	0.910	4

Under 1.000 is a cheap hour to buy; over 1.000 a good hour to sell. Days counts how many days that hour was scanned in the window. The same figures as JSON: /v1/timing/forever.pvp.alliance.us/1220 on the API.

The whole market by hour · PvP Alliance US

Hour (UTC)	Pacific	Price index	Listings index	Days
00:00	16:00	1.025	0.959	4
01:00	17:00	1.082	0.840	3
02:00	18:00	0.993	1.061	3
03:00	19:00	1.011	1.016	3
04:00	20:00	0.995	1.074	4
05:00	21:00	1.000	1.092	5
06:00	22:00	1.020	1.143	4
07:00	23:00	1.001	1.194	5
08:00	00:00	1.011	1.116	4
09:00	01:00	0.987	1.133	4
10:00	02:00	1.014	1.059	5
11:00	03:00	0.999	1.090	3
12:00	04:00	1.014	0.987	2
13:00	05:00	0.990	0.984	3
14:00	06:00	0.995	0.984	4
15:00	07:00	0.973	0.963	3
16:00	08:00	0.972	0.938	4
17:00	09:00	0.974	0.888	4
18:00	10:00	0.977	0.935	3
19:00	11:00	0.993	0.902	3
20:00	12:00	0.984	0.913	3
21:00	13:00	0.992	0.839	2
22:00	14:00	0.998	0.927	3
23:00	15:00	1.003	0.962	4

Each hour is indexed against the 24 hours around it, item by item across the market's largest positions, then centred so an average hour reads 1.000. For the day-of-week pattern, see market structure.

▸How this is worked out

Every hourly price is divided by the same item's average over the 24 hours around it, so a price drifting over the month does not make one end of the day look dear. The best buy window is the cheapest run of three hours and the best sell window the dearest; the spread buys at the cheap window's lowest buyout and sells at the dear window's typical price less the cut. Forever's history restarts at launch, so a live market's pattern never includes beta scans.

Common questions

What is the best time of day to buy and sell Lupine Axe?: On PvP Alliance US, Lupine Axe is cheapest from 19:00 to 22:00 UTC (11:00 to 14:00 Pacific) and dearest from 07:00 to 10:00 UTC (23:00 to 02:00 Pacific). Buying in the cheap hours and selling in the dear ones returns about 112% after the 5 percent cut.
How is the hour-of-day pattern worked out?: Every hourly price is divided by the same item’s average over the 24 hours around it, so a price drifting up or down over the month does not make one end of the day look dear, and the 24 hours are then centred so an average hour reads 1.000. The best buy window is the cheapest run of three hours and the best sell window the dearest. Hours are UTC, with the hour on the wall in the zone most of the market’s players keep beside them.
How much history does the pattern need?: Each hour of the day needs a few days of scans behind it before its figure means anything. The confidence line reads the thinnest hour: settled from ten days of scans, provisional from three, too early under that, and no pattern at all while fewer than half the hours have been scanned. Scanning PvP Alliance US through the night fills the gaps.